Channel 4 buys stake in viral video producer

LONDON — Sam Barcroft has an eye for catchy videos. His YouTube channel has attracted more than 2 million subscribers with clips of shark attacks, extreme sports, and people doing various weird things.

Barcroft, a former photojournalist and tabloid picture editor, set up his own picture agency in a spare bedroom in 2003. It now supplies images and videos to digital news sites including Mail Online, the Sun, the Huffington Post and the Guardian. Barcroft also has a TV production arm that makes edgy documentaries for networks including Channel 4, Discovery and National Geographic.

As of today, Barcroft has a new investor: Channel 4. The publicly-owned, commercially-funded U.K. broadcaster has taken a minority stake in the multimedia group through its investment fund, it said in a statement Wednesday.

Channel 4 has been investing in independent production companies as part of a plan to diversify its revenues away from advertising. It did not give specific details of the Barcroft deal.